Karnataka - Bangalore   

A victim of mindless violence

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: Lynched by a mob at Siddalingaiya Circle, constable Manjunath Malladi lay there on the road, dead and deserted. Manjunath, who had passed the B.Com examination with distinction, had dreamt to make it big in the police force. But his dreams were extinguished in the mindless violence that engulfed the city.

Wounded and in pain, Manjunath's fellow recruits from the Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) sat in gloom at the Bowring Hospital late on Thursday night. Surrounded by an angry and violent mob, they had managed to escape from the KSRP van.

But 25-year-old Manjunath was not so lucky. He was trapped, surrounded and bludgeoned to death.

Narrating the mind-numbing incident to The Hindu , Manjunath's colleague Mahantesh relived the drama. The constables, 25 to 30 of them, had just reached Siddalingaiya Circle when they saw the mob approaching them menacingly. There was no time. They had to escape or be trapped.

Many jumped out of the vehicle through the driver's door. But the mob was too close. Three constables — Mahantesh, Anand and Manjunath — were trapped. Anand took his chance and jumped out, pretended to be unconscious and escaped the crowd's wrath. By this time, the mob had torched the bus, forcing Mahantesh to jump out. He suffered head injuries but managed to flee. That left Manjunath alone.

Mahantesh recalled that the mob surrounded Manjunath, forcibly removed his helmet and rained stones on his head.

Bleeding, the constable died soon after.

A few days, and he would have passed out from the Police Training College, Channapatna, adding to his already impressive qualification that included an LLB degree. But the mob had something else in store for the eldest son of an agriculturist.

Director-General of Police B.S. Sial, City Police Commissioner Ajai Kumar Singh and Additional Director-General of Police, KSRP, A.R. Infant visited the Bowring Hospital mortuary where Manjunath's body was kept and paid their last respects.

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